WND EXCLUSIVE

Tony Perkins: Eligibility 'legitimate issue'

Says Constitution has requirements for president

Bob Unruh joined WND in 2006 after nearly three decades with the Associated Press, as well as several Upper Midwest newspapers, where he covered everything from legislative battles and sports to tornadoes and homicidal survivalists. He is also a photographer whose scenic work has been used commercially.

The president of the Washington-based Family Research Council says that questions about Barack Obama’s tenure in the Oval Office are appropriate because the eligibility of a president, under the Constitution, is a legitimate issue.

The statements from Perkins come in a video posted online by RightWingWatch, a project of the left-wing group People for the American Way that monitors conservative political organizations.

In the brief clip posted online, Perkins discusses the efforts on the part of left-leaning individuals to control the issues. The strategy, similar to the teachings of Saul Alinsky, is to marginalize anyone with disagreements with the desired message.

“What the media has done, going back to an earlier discussion about the media … is that they have attempted to marginalize anyone who challenges this administration on those principles and that driving ideology,” Perkins said.

“You know, it goes back to what they did to those that … questioned the issue of his birth certificate,” Perkins said on the video. “Look, I don’t know about all that. But I will tell you this. It’s a legitimate issue from the standpoint of what the Constitution says.”

He concluded that, “I think what we’ve done is we’ve done great harm to the foundation of our government by marginalizing and attacking anyone who brings up a legitimate issue.”

WND has reported on many legal challenges to Obama’s occupancy of the Oval Office, dating back to his election in 2008 after not documenting his eligibility status under the Constitution’s requirement that a president be a “natural born citizen.”

The early legal cases challenged his presence in the White House, and a recent round of cases has challenged placing his name on state election ballots for the 2012 election without providing documentation.

The Constitution, Article 2, Section 1, states, “No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President.”

Some of the lawsuits question whether Obama was born in Hawaii, as he insists. If he was born out of the country, Obama’s American mother, the suits contend, was too young at the time of his birth to confer American citizenship to her son under the law at the time.

From Perkins:

FRC told WND that the discussion was part of an American Family Association Washington Watch program, where the influences of Marxism on Washington were the topic.

The full commentary from Perkins is:

“I would encourage people to read the article, because, you know what, we throw around labels a lot. And we’ve become desensitized. And what we’re looking here and what Sandy’s bringing up here are not labels – we’re not calling somebody a Marxist or a socialist because, you know. No, because, absolutely, we’re looking at facts, and what the media has done – going back to an earlier discussion about the media is that they have attempted to marginalize anyone who challenges this administration on these principles and that driving ideology. It goes back to what they did to those that, you know, question the issue of Obama’s birth certificate. Look, I don’t know about all of that, but I will tell you this, it’s a legitimate issue from a standpoint of what the constitution says. And I think what we’ve done, we’ve done great harm to the foundation of our government, by marginalizing and attacking anyone who brings up a legitimate issue. And what Sandy’s talking about here, is the policies, the ideology, and the connection, that, when you put it all together, it connects the dots. It makes you wonder, ‘why did he risk Congress and control of the House to push through healthcare?’ It’s a part of that ideology.”

The video, with Perkins’ comments starting about the 6:28 mark:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXTwzs4zLhM

Other challenges have focused on Obama’s citizenship through his father, a Kenyan subject to the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom at the time of his birth, thus making him a dual citizen. The cases contend the framers of the Constitution excluded dual citizens from qualifying as natural born.

Further, others question his citizenship by virtue of his attendance in Indonesian schools during his childhood and speculate that he didn’t use a U.S. passport to travel to Pakistan three decades ago.

A year ago,, Obama released an image of a “Certificate of Live Birth” from the state of Hawaii, but since then, numerous experts in imaging, documents and computers have concluded it isn’t authentic.